St. Mary’s Glacier

I’m coming up on 10 weeks of #ColoradoLife and so far my favorite thing about Colorado is the nature. Wow. It’s truly a change of scenery from Georgia and I am soaking up every minute of it while I am here.

I was attempting to look up hikes that would give me the biggest payoff in views with a lower mile count on a particularly lazy weekend when I stumbled upon St. Mary’s Glacier.

This hike is under 2 miles and you get to see a glacier and a pretty serene lake! For starters, the drive out to the trailhead from Denver is about an hour. However, I feel it is worth the gas money not only for the scenic hike but the drive is absolutely gorgeous.

Once you get to the trailhead, which looks like this:

Drive just past it to a parking lot. This is the parking lot that I parked in. There weren’t too many parking spots but there might be another lot close by. Parking is $5 so be sure to bring some cash. You get an envelope near the portapotties and slip your $5 inside, peel the slip off the front of the envelope to put on your dashboard, and then put the envelope with the $5 in the receptacle. From the parking lot, you walk back towards the trailhead which should be to your left if you are facing the parking lot.

Once you get to the trail head, you’ll notice it doesn’t really look like a trailhead. It resembles a rock slide more than a trail. I did notice there were some dirt paths to the side of the trail in some spots but it didn’t seem like they went all the way to the top. So, eventually, you’ll have to brave the ankle turning rock pile that is acting as the trail to the glacier.

The trail splits off several times and there are little to no signs directing you on where to go. Other than this one really inviting sign:

My advice is to just stick to the center trail and to follow your fellow hikers when in doubt.

Despite the trail being rather rocky and straight uphill, it’s really short and the views at the top make it all worth it. There are plenty of places to hammock or just relax by the lakeside or you can continue up to the glacier. I didn’t get to do this because I went at sunset. This was a bittersweet decision because the sunset was so beautiful but I had to get going before it got too dark. In fact, a kind gentleman I met along the hike decided it was necessary to remind me that it got dark at night… I was really appreciative of this because I had somehow forgotten how the planet worked. #Mansplaining

Sorry about the sarcasm…but also I’m not really sorry.

Anyways, since I didn’t have time to get all the way to the glacier, I spent my time relaxing by the lake and exploring the trails around that area.

I’ll definitely be back to St. Mary’s because… IT’S AN ACTUAL GLACIER. You don’t see this stuff in Georgia, y’all. 10/10 Totally recommend. I also noticed some people camping and how cool would that be?!